Review: Under the Sea Wind

Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Imagine you are at a totally immersive theater, like an IMAX, to watch an underwater nature movie. Now imagine a narrator. Not quite the typical Disney narrator with humorous descriptions of the actions of the sea animals, but one very serious, with plenty of flowery detail, so much detail that you could close your eyes and picture exactly what was on the screen. And imagine, like so many nature documentaries, that the action took place in different chapters, each in a different location focusing on a different animal, even to the extent of naming one fish and following it through its dangerous life. That is exactly what Rachel Carson has done in this book. Reading it, you feel like you just have closed your eyes while watching a nature documentary on animals of the sea. I thought this was a nice accomplishment. However, it was a bit long, and I think I understand why when Disney does these kinds of documentaries they ensure there are some humorous bits - you need that kind of personality in the narration to maintain interest. Given this was written in the early 1940s, it predates those many documentaries that were created since then. Carson certainly had a hand in the way those documentaries were narrated over the subsequent years, so it is interesting in that aspect. The descriptions were memorable.

I listened to this as an audiobook. It was over six and a half hours long. While it was broken into different "chapters" telling stories about different animals, it was still a lot of information covered over a longer time than I was used to for these kinds of narrations. Strangely, the edition I listened to, unabridged, included a full glossary that took almost an hour of that time. This "bonus" inclusion seems to have been unnecessary here.

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Review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the world building, with a kind of Northern California post hippy future, where baristas are important counsellors and government has blocked off sections of the country for nature to heal. And there are sentient and curious robots wandering around that are evolving through recycling. It's a good background and stepping off point for future adventures. The non-traditional pronouns used throughout made it a bit more difficult to read quickly. I suspect that was at least part of the purpose.

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Review: Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Odenkirk seems to have popped up when I was tired of sketch comedy, then moved to drama when I was otherwise occupied with HBO shows. So I never became a fan, and have, surprisingly to me, missed most of his performances. I decided to read this one because Odenkirk graduated from the high school that my daughters went to in Naperville, Illinois, and near where I currently live. I figured I might get some taste of his local comedic influences. He doesn’t really go into this much, instead focusing on his time in Chicago in and near to Second City. His stories of Second City were interesting, but I found that as he left Chicago for the coasts, he got less interesting, and the stories he told became more dry. Outside of his stories about Chris Farley, I don’t think I had many laughs while reading this book, and I expected it would be funny. Not the kind of book that creates a fan, I’d say this is more for Odenkirk’s current fans.

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Review: Sea of Tranquility

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed listening to “Sea of Tranquility”. I found the structure reminded me of “Cloud Atlas”, but in a simpler way, and mostly in a “forward” direction, where “Cloud Atlas” went forward and then backward. Or was it more in, then out? Engaging writing throughout. The time travel aspects, not immediately obvious, make some sense by the end of the book. My favorite topic covered was the belief that the world is a simulation, edited from outside, and how that related to time travel. The book leaves many such things to think about. I look forward to reading “The Glass Hotel”, and wonder if I should have read it first.

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Review: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this in part to understand the background of the world of economics in practice in the eras between the wars. You get that, but written in a kind of People magazine way. I mostly remember the behind-the-scenes personality descriptions of the wealthy decision-makers/bankers in Europe and the US, as well as the behind-the-scenes strategery. Interesting if that’s what you were looking for.

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Review: Dead Heat

Dead Heat by Dick Francis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Francis formula has been to combine some aspect of horse racing with a deep dive into another career or hobby or realm of technology. Those ingredients were (almost) always mixed together and wrapped around a mystery. Here, we get very little of the horse racing details that he’s covered in other books. Instead, this dives into the life of a famous chef and restauranteur. I enjoyed the deep dive into the world of cooking professionally, but I also enjoyed the deep dive into the operation of a restaurant. Both of these aspects of a career were covered well, were interesting, and I actually feel I learned some things. I didn’t miss the “inside baseball” of horse racing as much as I would have thought.

Another part of the Francis formula is that his protagonist often survives torturous injury. Here it happens, with descriptions that may bother the squeamish, at least three times. This one really goes through the ringer. But in an unusual move for a Francis protagonist, there is a girlfriend. I found this story worked for me. It was enjoyable. Given this was one of the early ones with Felix’s name on the cover, along with his father, I wonder which one did more of the writing…


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Review: Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line

Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line by Gregory L. Schneider
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Those who are interested in the history of the Rock Island Lines likely would begin their studies with a company-friendly history from the early 1950s called “Iron Road to Empire”. In that book, the author describes the founding of the railroad and on through the growth of the company into the 1950s, where the future looked exceedingly bright. “Rock Island Requiem” could be volume 2 of a complete history of the company, starting at its apex in the postwar 40s and 50s and through its decline and eventual liquidation in the 1980s. Except for a few good years, the Rock was in decline during this time described in this book. Notable were the political and legal machinations of the Rock and a few of its regional competitors, with the biggest issue being the prospective merger of the regional Rock with the national powerhouse Union Pacific. This merger is caught in governmental bureaucracy and legal challenges for many years, eliminating over time the value of the Rock to the UP or any other line. The weakened railroad went bankrupt, but operated in bankruptcy for many years until losses sealed its fate. The post bankruptcy liquidation was quite successful, though, leaving a rail car leasing company that was subsequently purchased by Maytag.

Author Schneider describes the action quite thoroughly throughout the period covered. “Iron Road to Empire” portrayed the early history of the railroad using substantial references to financial terms of mergers and operations. “Rock Island Requiem” similarly relates the later history of the Rock through the use of documentation of governmental and regulatory meetings. This story revolves around lawyers. This could have been extremely dry reading, but the author was able to inject some of the personality of the lawyers involved so that the reader could at times predict what reactions would occur after meetings. There were times when the author repeated anecdotes, but thankfully this didn’t happen often. I feel the author did a reasonable job with dry source material, but I can also imagine a more personality driven take on the decline of the railroad could be quite interesting. Seems like the makings of a miniseries in this story.

There were a couple of takeaways that I had from the book. First, the question at the end of the book is whether the Rock’s unions killed the company, or if the strike that marked the company’s demise was too late to have made a difference. The author describes both sides of that argument well. Union management doesn’t shine in this description, but their actions may well have been too late to matter.

Second, I grew up in Rock Island County not far from the Rock’s Silvis yards. My uncle worked for the Rock most of his career, and lost his job during the bankruptcy. I expected much of the story would take place in Rock Island. I was very wrong. There is barely a mention of the area I’m from – just some talk about the Silvis yards and the Rock Island Rocket passenger train route between Rock Island and Chicago. A majority of the events here happen in courthouses and meeting rooms in Chicago and Washington DC. I did get some small-town enjoyment out of reading where some of the rail segments that were split off of the Rock’s trackage and sold or abandoned began or ended in various nearby small towns in Northwestern Illinois and Eastern Iowa. There are probably not very many books that mention Bureau Junction, Illinois. This is one of them.


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